N.S.F. Urged To Emphasize General Education Over Occupational

WASHINGTON--The National Science Foundation should focus its
precollegiate-education programs exclusively on improving science
instruction for all students, rather than on training future scientists
and engineers, a draft report by a private contractor has
concluded.

"Science education should not just be occupational preparation, but
should prepare students for life in the 21st century,'' said Marian S.
Stearns, director of the social-sciences department at SRI
International, a California-based research and consulting firm that is
reviewing the N.S.F.'s education programs under a $1.6-million
contract.

Noting that demographic trends indicate that the school-age
population will become more ethnically diverse in the next few decades,
Ms. Stearns added that improving general science education would also
broaden the pool of prospective scientists.

"We'll see a less homogeneous group and better science in the long
run if all scientists don't come from one socioeconomic group,'' she
said.

Ms. Stearns, who spoke late last month at the annual convention of
the National Science Teachers Association, said SRI's final report will
be released next month.

That report will describe about a dozen "opportunities'' for
improving science education that the N.S.F. could address, and some 50
specific initiatives the federal agency could undertake, she added.

Those steps could include strengthening support for secondary-school
science teachers, improving informal science programs, and redesigning
the curriculum, according to Mark St. John, leader of the SRI project's
working group on informal science education.

Bassam Z. Shakhashiri, the foundation's assistant director for
science and engineering education, declined to comment on the SRI
report, noting that it had not yet been presented to him.

However, he said in an interview, the agency has a "dual
mission.''

"The N.S.F.'s interest is in pursuing programs that deal with future
scientists and engineers as well as general public understanding of
science,'' Mr. Shakhashiri said.

'Terrible Need'

The SRI report, together with a separate study by the Research
Triangle Institute on the foundation's middle-school education
programs, which is also expected to be released this spring, is likely
to help frame the Congressional debate over the agency's budget. As
part of an effort to improve America's economic competitiveness,
President Reagan has pledged to double the foundation's budget over the
next five years.

For fiscal 1988, the Administration is proposing to increase
spending for the N.S.F.'s science- and engineering-education
directorate from $99 million to $115 million.

But the increase is earmarked for research and for programs training
top students to become scientists and engineers, according to Bill G.
Aldridge, executive director of the science teachers' association.
Funding levels for general science-education programs would be left
unchanged, he said.

Like the SRI researchers, Mr. Aldridge urged the N.S.F. to shift its
emphasis away from training future scientists and engineers.

"There is no present need--in fact, there is a surplus--of research
scientists in the United States,'' Mr. Aldridge said at a press
conference at the N.S.T.A. convention. "There is no current need for
engineers, except for engineering faculty.''

"The documented need has been for science education for the general
public,'' he continued. "Yet the programs of the N.S.F. have not
addressed that terrible need.''

Mr. Aldridge has proposed doubling the science- and
engineering-education directorate's budget to $200 million, to provide
funds for revamping the school science curriculum.

"We need a federal government that is willing to put up national
programs,'' he said. "What's there now is inappropriate.''

"Ninety-three percent of kids never take another course in science,
yet [current] courses are designed specifically for preparing kids for
another course,'' he continued. "Why in the world would we do
that?''

Increased Mandates

In a related development, Mr. Aldridge and Leroy R. Lee, president
of the science teachers' group, announced their support for
legislation--the "Challenger mission fulfillment act''--expected to be
introduced in the Congress by Representative Thomas C. Sawyer of Ohio,
that would authorize $400 million a year over the next five years for
an Education Department program training mathematics and science
teachers.

The Reagan Administration has proposed scrapping that program,
currently funded at $80 million, and several smaller teacher-training
programs, and replacing them with a new $80-million program to train
teachers from all disciplines.

That proposal would "gut'' the program, Mr. Lee contended. "Funds
already stretched to ridiculously low amounts would be spread so thin
as to have no effect whatsoever,'' he said in remarks prepared for a
hearing before the House Education and Labor subcommittee on
elementary, secondary, and vocational education.

But Secretary of Education William J. Bennett, who spoke at the
N.S.T.A. convention, said that improved science education will require
efforts at the state and local levels, and he urged districts to raise
their high-school science requirements to three years, up from the
current average of 1.8 years.

"If we are serious about improving scientific literacy in this
country, local school districts simply must teach more math and
science, at all levels, elementary and secondary,'' Secretary Bennett
said.

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